


fill up your lungs with us

by peterdonaldson



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Date Night, Established Relationship, M/M, also SIMS references, this is just really sappy boyfriends being back together after dan's trip to sweden basically, with pizza and some choice netflix movies
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-19
Updated: 2015-06-19
Packaged: 2018-04-05 03:32:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4164108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peterdonaldson/pseuds/peterdonaldson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s literally <i>just</i> dragged himself through the door after a draining two hour flight and an unnecessarily convoluted taxi ride home, anticipating a nice cup of tea and some quality browsing time before Phil gets back from the meeting he’s been <br/>moaning about over text all day, and now his phone is beeping at him and telling him that it’s date night.</p>
<p>It’s date night, and it’s <i>his turn</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fill up your lungs with us

**Author's Note:**

> for [agnes](http://gaylittlemix.tumblr.com), who prompted me and is the one responsible for dragging me back into this hellhole of a fandom ♡
> 
> as i keep saying, i'm only just getting back into writing fic, so forgive me if this is a bit stunted or doesn't read well in places, i hope you enjoy!!
> 
> you should probably watch the danandphilgames video 'dil gets a girlfriend' ([here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxWSseTnHkQ)) to fully understand every ridiculous reference dan makes in this fic

Dan stands in the hallway, his suitcase wobbling precariously on the top step behind him, and stares at the little calendar notification blinking on his phone with a sense of what can only be described as pure horror. He’s literally _just_ dragged himself through the door after a draining two hour flight and an unnecessarily convoluted taxi ride home, anticipating a nice cup of tea and some quality browsing time before Phil gets back from the meeting he’s been moaning about over text all day, and now his phone is beeping at him and telling him that it’s date night.

It’s date night, and it’s _his turn_.

Date night is a big deal in their household. It’s the one night a month that they actually try with food (the idea of a _weekly_ date night went out of the window after approximately two attempts to keep it going, they just aren’t that organised), the one night a month they turn off all communication with the outside world and get really sappy with each other (see, it _is_ a big deal) – this _one night_ , and Dan failed to take note of the fact that of course it was going to be his turn the night he returned from his trip. This is what impromptu decisions to fly to Europe for the weekend get you, that and a surprising number of fans on Twitter basically harassing him about why he chose 'the most irrelevant city in Sweden' to visit – anyway, it’s done, it’s happened and he has to figure something out before Phil gets home. Daniel James Howell does not _slack_ when it comes to date night, he’s actually not atrocious at cooking when he tries and on top of that it’s something he genuinely enjoys doing. Sighing, he pockets his phone and drags his suitcase down the hallway to shove it into his room before returning to the kitchen for a desperate perusal of the cupboards.

He flicks the kettle on first of all and then starts shuffling through the shelves, praying for a miracle to be lurking at the back every time he lifts up a tin of tuna or shoves a half empty packet of coffee grains aside. Logically, he knows that their shopping comes every Friday and they aren’t likely to have anything that would constitute a date night level meal, but he keeps hoping – right up until the point he’s forced to confront the fact that he’s either going to have to take his search elsewhere or their dinner is going to consist of baked beans drizzled with Henderson’s Relish. Okay. Right. This is fine, Phil isn’t back for another half an hour, he can make something of this, he _can –_

Twenty minutes later, he’s sat on the sofa in despair, and he can’t.

He takes his phone out, intending to see what Siri has to say on the subject, but he opens Twitter instead out of habit and is immediately barraged with mentions concerning, primarily, two things– Sweden and Dil’s latest SIMS adventure.

He scrolls for a couple of minutes, smiling as he always does because most of these people don’t seem to realise that he does see the tweets they send him and would probably be horrified at the thought of him actually reading them. The time display at the top of his phone is warning him that he has 6 minutes until Phil is due to get back and he’s pretty much given up this point, Phil won’t mind, he’s only just got back from Sweden –

_@phan_confirmed: @danisnotonfire omg o k so this vid is basically just u and phil showing us ur date nights. please ‘romance and pizza what more do you need’ stopppp_

He loves their fans, he really does.

Phil is probably going to actually cry when he realises date night is now going to be a perfect imitation of Dil’s latest romantic endeavours, but hey, he needs to accept the fact that Dan is always willing to sink ever lower in his estimations, and anyway, pizza is a universally accepted medium through which to display affection – if it was good enough for the Romans, it’s good enough for him. He knows that one thing they aren’t lacking in right now is alcohol, their booze cupboard is shameful, honestly – and he used to (sometimes) make cocktails (on occasion) (very rarely) in uni, didn’t he? He can, like, mix things, can’t he?

He grabs his phone and sends their usual order to Domino’s at absolute lightning speed before running to grab the matches from the kitchen and light a couple of Phil’s six million Yankee candles so the room has some vague kind of romantic ambience. He hears Phil’s key in the lock just as he’s throwing on a fresh t-shirt (he likes wearing his 1D shirt whenever possible just as a reminder that Niall Horan would totally have been up for it if he’d asked) and practically jogs to the top of the stairs, just in time to see Phil rounding the corner.

Phil looks absolutely exhausted. Though they’re both excited about the book, the amount of _effort_ it appears to require is more than either of them had expected and there are far more meetings involved than they’d foreseen. But Phil doesn’t look grumpy-tired, at least, which is always better than the alternative – when he glances up, a smile immediately breaks out on his face and he makes an effort to shuffle up the stairs faster. After about two steps, he gives up to just lie down, and Dan rolls his eyes as he descends to give him a hand with his bag.

‘One of us endured a pretty turbulent two-hour flight today, did you know?’

‘Leave me alone,’ mumbles Phil with a small smile as they reach the top of the stairs and he can lean into a hug. ‘That guy in the meeting today was terrifying, I think they all knew I was a bit lost without you, it was kind of embarrassing – ‘

‘Oh, fuck off, you’ll have made loads of well-informed decisions without me there, I bet they were pleased to be shot of me for the day,’ grins Dan as they head into the living room and Phil flings himself bodily onto the sofa. He lies there still for a moment, then twists his head around just enough to make his face visible.

‘So, how was Sweden?’

Dan’s smile widens.

‘It was _amazing_ , oh my god, I can’t believe I’d never been before! Everyone was so nice, and their English was perfect, and the convention was really awesome as well.’

‘Did you manage to film everything you needed?’ Phil’s swivelled a bit now, and Dan can actually see his face, which is nice.

‘Yeah, I think so, and I got you some stuff from the con and Jönköping as well. I’m gonna give you everything tomorrow, though.’

‘What – why? Do you wanna do a Sweden haul video or something?’

Phil’s fully turned over now, lying on his back and propped up on his arms, and it’s apparently only from this angle that he notices the change in the room.

‘Dan,’ he says slowly. ‘Why are all my candles lit?’

Dan gestures for Phil to shuffle up on the sofa. He sits down next to him, drawing his knees up and beams.

‘It’s date night! I bet you thought I’d forgotten because of Sweden, and to be honest that’s understandable because I _did_ forget, but I’ve done a last minute salvage and I hope you’re going to be impressed with my creativity on the subject – although the credit’s really due to my Twitter followers, I won’t lie.’

Phil looks a bit confused, although it’s hard to tell as the room _is_ pretty dark in the candlelight. ‘But – you went to Sweden, you know I wasn’t expecting you to do anything, right? We could have postponed it for a week or whatever.’

Dan shakes his head, pulling an offended expression. ‘Philip Michael Lester, do you know me _at all_ , of course I wasn’t going to _postpone date night_ , I am scandalized by the very _suggestion_ and frankly I take this to be a grievous insult against my character, I have meticulously planned this for _at least_ 7 minutes _if not longer_ and I hope you won’t be maintaining this lack of faith in future - ’

Phil smirks and shoves at him. ‘Okay, Prince Charming, I get it – right then, so can I expect to be wined and dined by your handsome self this eve? Should I, I don’t know, change into a suit?’

At that moment, the doorbell lets out its shrill ring, and Phil’s face resumes its confused expression. ‘Who’s that? Did you invite anyone over?’

Dan scrambles off the sofa, digging in his pocket for his wallet, and is off down the hall before Phil can say another word. He knows exactly what they’re going to watch because he is a massive loser who has spent an inordinate amount of time googling lists of the ‘Top 20 Worst Movies On Netflix’ and may or may not have a very long iPhone note dedicated to this very topic stored safely for situations just such as this. He tips the Domino’s woman very generously in his excitement and is barely back through the door before Phil, apparently swiftly reenergised by the scent of food, comes thundering down the stairs to grab the box out of his hands. His sense of smell, heightened whenever even vaguely in the vicinity of pizza, is dangerously close to becoming literally superhuman one of these days.

‘Pizza,’ comments Phil as he drags the box open and inhales deeply. ‘Classy.’

Dan’s offended expression makes a reappearance. ‘I am classy as _fuck_ , I will have you know, I am planning on mixing us _cocktails_ to have with these.’

‘Cocktails with pizza? This is a bit of a departure from date night tradition, you’re usually flambéing things by this point.’

After Dan’s trademark ‘fuck off’, they head back upstairs. Phil’s made his way through an impressive two and a half slices by the time they get to the living room, despite Dan swatting at him and telling him to stop messing up the plan - ‘I’m following a _formula_ , this has all been very well planned and you are not ruining the best damn date night we’ve ever had by pissing around with the rules, young man - ’ and by the time they’ve sat down there’s pizza sauce everywhere, mostly in Phil’s eye and they’re laughing and Dan is happy. He and Phil don’t really go in for obvious romance, date night is the one exception to the unspoken rule that they don’t hold hands much and they don’t do PDA and they hardly ever remember shit like anniversaries. But moments like this are nice, definitive of their relationship, and so he smiles a bit at Phil wiping the tomato out of his eyes and then excuses himself to the kitchen before things get a bit _too_ homosexual too early on.

He starts digging around in their cupboards, knowing there’s a cocktail shaker in there somewhere because they may be massive losers but they do have _some_ friends and they have been known to throw the very occasional party when they’re feeling daring. The shaker doesn’t really get much use outside of these gatherings, so when Dan finally finds it it’s sat accumulating dust in the very darkest, gloomiest corner of a cupboard. He pulls it forward triumphantly, but in the same second realises something pretty important in this situation - that he doesn’t actually remember how to make anything with it.

Okay, that’s a bit embarrassing, but it’s not like he was ever a bartender or particularly adventurous at uni and these days if they want cocktails they’ll go out to a bar, there’s no point wasting ages boiling things to make a good mojito or buying expensive ingredients. He racks his brain, and after a quick shuffle through the cupboards he’s relieved to discover that they have everything required for a Cosmopolitan. Not the most exciting of drinks, and Phil will probably (definitely) laugh at him, but he’s doing this on literally zero planning so really he’s just impressed that they actually have any fucking lime juice in at all (possibly bought it for an attempted Thai dinner that never got made, now that he thinks about it). He grabs the vodka, bashes out an ice cube thunderously on the worktop, and after five minutes of wrestling with the shaker he emerges into the living room triumphant, cocktail glasses balanced precariously on a tray.

Phil turns his head at the movement, and it’s immediately evident that he’s trying very hard not to laugh. But he takes his drink anyway, smiling as he sips. Dan quirks his eyebrows, and Phil adopts a thoughtful expression, the kind he puts on whenever they’re around someone who knows a lot about wine or cheese or something.

‘I detect… limey undertones, with a hint of – cranberry? And –‘ he takes a bigger sip, promptly sprays it everywhere and starts coughing – ‘there’s too much vodka in this, oh my god, Dan I can’t breathe -’

After initial panic and some aggressive back thumping, Phil’s near death experience passes, and Dan tries not to laugh too much when Phil attempts to take another sip despite his watery eyes threatening to overflow. Eventually, he concedes, putting the glass down.

‘I can’t believe I’ve reached this point, am I too _old_ to drink cocktails? Am I turning back into a _lightweight_ now I’m reaching my middle years, I can’t even handle a single Cosmopolitan – Dan, this was meant to be a date night, not a convert-Phil-to-existential-crisis night,’ he groans, with a hand thrown over his forehead for full effect. Dan smiles sympathetically, and it only takes two quips about Phil maybe needing a zimmer frame if he’s getting that old and how they should really think about investing in life insurance at some point before Phil starts fighting to put his hand over his mouth and shut him up.

‘Okay, okay, I’m elderly, we’ve established this, leave me alone – so do we have any other plans on this date night of yours? Or is it just going to be us drinking cocktails with our pizza like the mature adults we are?’

To be honest, Dan still can’t believe that Phil hasn’t worked out where the plan for their evening has come from and he feels it’s reached the point where a direct reference is a necessity – he’s going to have to tell him otherwise, he can’t make him sit through the Netflix he has planned without letting him in on the situation.

‘Well, we’re on the sofa… and the TV is hooked up to Netflix… and it’s date night…’

He waggles his eyebrows, but Phil just looks a bit confused and slightly concerned, so he sighs and just says it in as monotone a voice as he can manage.

‘Netflix on the couch, we all know where this is going…’

Phil looks genuinely distressed for a moment as he realises what Dan’s just said, like, genuinely distressed.

‘Are we – oh my god, Dan, please tell me we are not _roleplaying_ _Dil and Tabitha?’_

Dan chokes.

‘Oh my god, okay, first of all, no, this is not fucking _SIMS_ _roleplay_ , you complete and utter weirdo, and secondly it wasn’t my idea!’ answers Dan, indignant, although he’s smiling and Phil is too, ‘you can blame Twitter user ‘phan-underscore-confirmed’ for this! To be honest it was just gonna be pizza and Netflix anyway, all I needed to add was cocktails and a barrage of knock-knock jokes –‘

‘Don’t you dare,’ interrupts Phil,

‘- and if you want little quota things that you have to fulfil, we can do that too – I think that really it’s time for us to face the facts, Phil, we’re gaming memes and this was a long time coming, in fact I think we should be surprised that neither of us thought of it earlier to be perfectly honest,’ and then he has to stop talking because they’re both laughing too much and god, if any of their audience could see this there would probably be people having genuine heart attacks over the way that they’re clutching each other’s hands (it’s mostly for balance with the way that they’re precariously balanced on the edge of the sofa, but it _looks_ really fucking gay). Once they’ve managed to recover themselves, Dan extracts himself and heads over to hit play on the movie he’s set up. He toiled long hours scouring Google and consulting fan-made lists for this, and after a cursory glance over it himself to check that the claims of the internet were true, he feels pretty safe in the knowledge that they are about to watch a true work of genius – a masterpiece of filmmaking that many have hailed as the Worst Movie on Netflix, a landmark in cinematic history – the stunningly bad 2009 one star sci-fi flick _Eyeborgs_.

They make it approximately 17 minutes and 37 seconds in before Phil starts crying.

Actually, they both start crying. The CGI, the abominable script, the YouTube-level standard of acting – it’s a work of art to behold, and try as they might they can barely advance further than a few more minutes before the cyclopean machines implement their evil plan and start actually killing people and Phil tells him that he can’t physically watch this anymore, please, dear god, the meme points aren’t worth it, they’re more than this, Dan oh my god I will legitimately break up with you on date night, just watch me.

They make a temporary switch to a movie called _Party Monster_ starring Macaulay Culkin and Seth Green, but this time it’s Dan who has to switch it off out of fear that the film will ruin both Home Alone and Buffy for them if they see it through to the end. By the time the penis museum documentary gets picked, they’re both full on sobbing and also a bit drunk and Phil’s lying on Dan, a little bit. It’s nice. They don’t do this very much, unless they’re sleeping in the same bed, and so Dan embraces the moment and takes Phil’s hand in his, running his thumb over his fingers. Phil looks up from his position near Dan’s armpit (nice) and frowns.

‘You know, if we’re sticking to the Dil video rules, I do have to kiss you passionately at least once this evening.’

Dan is physically incapable of hearing Phil get too romantic without cringing a bit, it’s just who he is and who they are, but Phil _is_ slightly drunk so he keeps his grin small and looks down.

‘I haven’t told you all my knock knock jokes yet, surely they’re more imperative to this date than something as trivial as _kissing_ , honestly, Phil.’

Phil sits up, and okay, he’s not that drunk at all, but the slight haziness is enough to let them both be a bit more cheesy and cliché and their hands stay locked tightly together.

‘But it’s making out, it’s imperative to any good date! You know making out, it’s more intense with tongues and shizz – ‘

‘Jesus,’ says Dan, ‘you are never quoting your game channel self during our date nights ever again –‘

Phil kisses him, and Dan didn’t realise how much he’d missed him over the weekend away. They text and Whatsapp and Facebook each other so much anyway that it hadn’t felt much different to their normal interactions, but as much as Dan is an advocate for internet friendship it doesn’t compare to the feeling of having Phil actually _here_ with him, warm and close and _real_. That had been the first thing Phil had ever said to him, that day in 2009 when he got off the train in Manchester (‘Oh my god, you’re real, you’re actually real’), and maybe the alcohol is making him sentimental but he loves Phil and they hardly ever say it so it’s nice to be able to show him like this. They’re still holding hands, and his grip tightens a bit as Phil pulls back.

‘There we go – achievement unlocked, date complete,’ whispers Phil, laughing a bit, and Dan smiles again.

‘I missed you.’

‘Yeah,’ says Phil, ‘yeah. I missed you too.’ He leans in to kiss him again, and Dan is all for more kissing, definitely, yes, absolutely fine with him, but he has to fulfil certain expectations so before Phil can reach him he puts his hand on Phil’s chest, murmurs ‘Netflix on the couch, we all know where this is going,’ in the most ridiculously sensual voice he can muster, and winks with both eyes. Phil rolls his own eyes but doesn’t move back, choosing to actually move closer, and oh, okay, they’re doing this here, right, on the sofa that Dan’s own mother helped them choose, that’s whatever -

‘You have a gift for ruining the mood, Daniel,’ he smirks, and Dan would complain but kissing is happening again and Phil is making a move like he’s about to climb on top of him and they’re still holding hands, so he stays quiet and kisses back and makes a mental note to gloat to Phil in the morning that he was the one to orchestrate the best fucking date night they’ve ever had.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!! i hope it was okay, as i said i'm still getting back into writing fic and it's taking me a while to get back into the swing of things - i'm [here](http://azirphales.tumblr.com) on tumblr if you ever wanna come and say hey!!


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